Curated playlist
Former French colonies
- GrenadaGrenada is the smallest of the eastern Caribbean's spice nations, and yet its national flag carries a nutmeg. That single image hints at how much one tree shaped a country. Grenada sits in the eastern Caribbean Sea, the southernmost of the…
- DominicaDominica is the only eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Kalinago, the people who once called the island Wai'tu kubuli, meaning "Tall is her body." More than 3,000 Kalinago remain, living in eight…
- DjiboutiDjibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa, and it carries the smallest population in mainland Africa. The 2024 census counted 1,066,809 people, recorded on the 20th of May. The nation takes its name from its capital, the City of…
- Burkina FasoBurkina Faso sits at the heart of West Africa, entirely landlocked, ringed by six countries and a history that refuses to be still. On the 4th of August 1984, a young army captain named Thomas Sankara renamed this nation from the Republic…
- HaitiHaiti is the only country in history established by a slave revolt. On the 1st of January 1804, in the town of Gonaives, the leaders of the Haitian Revolution declared their independence from France. They renamed their land using a word…
- Mandate for Syria and the LebanonThe Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was born on the 29th of September 1923, when France was formally assigned control over a vast stretch of the eastern Mediterranean world. It covered the territories of present-day Syria, Lebanon, and…
- CambodiaCambodia sits at a crossroads where ancient empire and modern catastrophe meet, a country of 17 million people whose story spans from one of the largest cities ever built to one of history's most devastating genocides. The Tonle Sap,…
- MississippiMississippi sits at the southern edge of the American interior, a state whose name comes from an Ojibwe word meaning "great river." That river defines its western boundary, shaped its economy, caused its floods, and gave the state its…
- Saint-DomingueSaint-Domingue occupied the western third of Hispaniola, a Caribbean island, and it became the richest French colony in the Western Hemisphere, and arguably the most consequential piece of real estate in the Atlantic world. By 1789, this…
- LouisianaLouisiana sits at one of the most consequential crossroads in North America, where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. Long before a single European ship appeared on the horizon, thousands of years of human civilization had…
- IllinoisIllinois sits at the geographic and demographic center of the United States, a state that political strategists and journalists have long called a bellwether, captured in the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" Its 12.8 million residents span…
- French MadagascarFrench Madagascar begins with a queen's signature. On the 17th of December 1885, Queen Ranavalona III signed a treaty that turned the island of Madagascar into a French protectorate. She had fought to prevent it. The source describes her…